10 January 2009

The Basics: Black and White

I believe in dualism: specifically that there exists the body and the mind, the objective and the subjective. I do not care for the terminology of good and evil, as these terms are subjective. I do, however, prefer the visual association of the White and the Black.

It is an equal reality that the objective universe is godless and is governed by only one law: nihilism. Everything is subject to chaos and entropy. Everything is meaningless. This is the destructive force; this is the Black.

It is an equal reality that the subjective universe is God. The subjective creates the objective: the mind of God is reality, in infinite variations; a singular variation each of us experiences as self-awareness: the illusion that we are separate from our surroundings, from God. Our minds create the world we experience. All our minds, in every form, are omniscience, and omnipotence. There is meaning. This is the creative force; this is the White.

It is tempting to call the Black evil, but it is not. It is an undoing into chaos and finally nihilism. Yet, it is also the chaos from which creation springs.

I agree with Sartre when he said that “man is condemned to be free.” We have complete sovereignty over our subjective experience. I also find Sartre's concept of “bad faith” to be useful: this is when a person creates something to relieve him of the terrible freedom he has: this is religion, for instance. To believe that there is a higher authority than himself, to believe that he must walk a certain path, to believe that there is “right” and “wrong” is a self-delusion; this is God denying himself, this is God cutting himself off, this is to be “fallen”; this is the path toward powerlessness and nihilism.

Nevertheless, it is important to see that none of our lives are created wholly from the White or the Black, but in different balances: again, it is not “wrong” to act in bad faith; to do so is necessary for God to experience creation.